Biography

English author.

Her parents are Margaret Forster and Hunter Davies, both well-known writers. Caitlin's father wrote regularly about her and her brother Jake and sister Flora in a weekly Punch magazine column which ran in the 1970s, giving a broad insight into their upbringing.

Although born in England, Davies has been associated with Botswana since 1990 when she met her husband, Ron, while studying for a Masters in English at Clark University, USA. Relocating to Botswana and working as a teacher, and then a freelance journalist, she wrote the novel Jamestown Blues and the historical work The Return of El Negro. The victim of a brutal assault and rape, she was active in research concerning domestic violence in Botswana.

She returned to England with her daughter after divorcing her husband and published a memoir about her experiences, called Place of Reeds; her novel Black Mulberries was published in 2008. Her novel, Friends Like Us was published in September 2009. In 2011 she published a fictionalised account of two Edwardian baby farmers, who were hanged at Holloway Prison in 1903: The Ghost of Lily Painter.

She also wrote an illustrated non-fiction book on the bathing ponds and lido on Hampstead Heath, with photographer Ruth Corney. She also writes education and careers features for The Independent newspaper.

Source Notes

Sy Scholfield cites time of birth from the midwife's card quoted by Hunter Davies, "Father in the house." Sunday Times [London, England] 5 June 1966: 33. The Sunday Times Digital Archive. Web. 8 May 2012; and place of birth from the Historical Writers' Association: "Caitlin Davies was born in north London in 1964." http://www.thehwa.co.uk/author/caitlin-davies.